Corrugated Stainless Steel Tubing (CSST) is a relatively new building product used to plumb structures for fuel gas in lieu of conventional black pipe. The advantages that are offered for CSST include a lack of connection and a lack of threading. In essence, it is a material that results in substantial labor savings relative to using black pipe.
CSST differs from black pipe in a number of ways. In a CSST system, gas enters a house at a pressure of about 2 psi and is dropped to ˜7″ WC by a regulator in the attic (assuming a natural gas system). The gas then enters a manifold and is distributed to each separate appliance via “home runs.” Unlike black pipe, a CSST system requires a separate run for each appliance. For example, a large furnace and two water heaters in a utility closet will require three separate CSST runs. With black pipe, the plumber may use only one run of 1″ pipe and then tee off in the utility room. Therefore, the requirement of one home run per appliance significantly increases the number of feet of piping in a building.
CSST is sold in spools of hundreds of feet and is cut to length in the field for each run. In this regard, CSST has no splices or joints behind walls that might fail. CSST also offers an advantage over black pipe in terms of structural shift. With black pipe systems, the accommodations for vibrations and/or structural shifts are handled by appliance connectors, a form of flexible piping.
However, the thin flexible walls of CSST have a propensity to fail when exposed to electrical insult, particularly lightning. CSST is very thin, with walls typically about 10 mils in thickness. The desire for easy routing of the tubing necessitates this lack of mass. However, it also results in a material through which electricity can easily puncture.
Once the tubing has been perforated, it is possible for the escaping gas to be ignited by the metallic by-products of the arcing process, by auto-ignition, or by adjacent open flames.
The theoretical energy level required to melt a specimen can be compared by using both heat capacity and melting temperature. The heat capacity is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of either sample one degree Celsius. Changing the temperature from an initial to the melting temperature requires the heat capacity to equal:q=C·m·ΔTm+m·Hf where:
C is the specific heat
Hf is the heat of fusion
m is the mass of the specimen
ΔTm is the change from the initial temperature to the melting temperature
Based on this equation, one can derive theoretical values for heat capacity for an equivalent 100 mil diameter hole in different materials. The amount of energy required to create a 100 mil diameter hole is much higher for black pipe than other pipe materials including aluminum, copper and CSST. The amount of energy required to melt a conventional half inch black pipe is about 15 times the energy required to similarly melt CSST, about 10 times the energy required for aluminum and five time that for copper. Thus, the thickness of the pipe plays a critical role.
Field data indicates that lightning damage to black pipe is sometimes so small that it is often only visible with microscopic analysis and limited to a small pit that does not leak. Lightning strikes involving CSST create leaks that vary from pinhead size to almost quarter inch holes.
Lightning strikes vary in current from 1,000 (low end) to 10,000 (typical) to 200,000 (maximum) amperes peak. Mechanical damage caused by heating is a function of the current squared multiplied by time. Thus, the current is the dominant factor creating the melting of gas tubing.
One of the underlying issues with CSST is that it is part of the electrical grounding system. For reasons of electric shock prevention (and also elimination of sparks associated with static electricity), it is desirable to have all exposed metal within a structure bonded so that there are no differences of potential. However, there are limitations to applying DC circuit theory (or even 60 Hz steady state phasor theory) in this situation because lightning is known to have fast wavefronts. While the reaction of large wires and irregular surfaces is predictable at 60 Hz, the fast wave fronts associated with lightning may cause substantial problems with CSST, given its corrugated surface. Moreover, new house construction has shown very tight bends and routing of CSST immediately adjacent to large ground surfaces, creating the potential for arcs created by lightning strikes. Testing of CSST under actual installed conditions using transient waveforms may well show further limitations that conventional bonding and grounding cannot accommodate.
The typical gas line or gas system, whether black pipe or CSST, is usually not a good ground. The metal components that make up a gas train are made from materials that are chosen for their ability to safely carry natural gas (or propane) and the accompanying odorant. These metallic components are not known for their ability to carry electric current. To further compound matters, it is not uncommon to find pipe joints treated with Teflon tape or plumber's putty, neither of which is considered an electrical conductor. The Fuel Gas Code (NFPA 54) calls for above ground gas piping systems to be electrically continuous and bonded to the grounding system. The code provision also prohibits the use of gas piping as the grounding conductor or electrode.
Appliance connectors, which are prefabricated corrugated gas pipes, are also known to fail from electric current, whether this current is from lightning or from fault currents seeking a ground return path. These connectors usually fail by melting at their ends (flares) during times of electrical overstress. These appliance connectors are better described ANSI Z21.24, Connectors for Indoor Gas Appliances, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. A gas appliance that is not properly grounded is more susceptible to gas line arcing than a properly grounded appliance. The exact amount of fault current, however, will depend upon the impedances of the several ground paths and the total fault current that is available. For example, air handlers for old gas furnaces seem to be the most prone. Typically, an inspection will reveal that the power for the blower motor uses a two-conductor (i.e. non-grounded) power cord.
A primary indicator that is found in these types of fires is the focal melting of the gas line at the brass nut/connector. It is well known and appreciated that the flame that is fueled from a gas orifice does not normally make physical contact with the orifice itself. Rather, there is some distance between the flame and orifice depending on the gas pressure, the size of the orifice, available oxygen, and the mixing or turbulence. In short, the leaking gas is too rich to burn at the point of escape. In addition, gas that is under pressure will cause a very small amount of cooling to occur when the gas escapes from such a leak or orifice due to adiabatic cooling. Both of these factors indicate that a gas line would be least likely to melt at a connection if the melting were indeed caused by the heat from a flame, as opposed to electrical insult.
For the several above described reasons, it would be desirable to have a CSST system or a gas appliance connector (GAC) that is capable of carry current in the case of electrical arcing or carrying fault currents without suffering perforation or melting at the connector end, thereby preventing the leaking and ignition of gas fuel. It is further desirable to have a CSST or GAC function in such a way that minimizes the chances of having perforations created on its side walls due to electric injury (i.e. from lighting and similar phenomenon).